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I was just a little nervous about this recipe, as simple as it sounds, because I had never gotten whole beef from the supermarket. I get very nervous about any meat that’s not frozen, as there’s always a possibility that it’s been laying out on the slab all day going bad. However, I was also excited to have access to halal beef just down the street. So I went to the counter, ordered some beef, and the man tried to give me something that was half fat. I said it was too expensive, and then he gave me a cut of beautiful red meat, and it only cost about 30 yuan. This is about $5 USD. For a giant slab of beef. Granted, it was a whole day’s food allowance, but Nick and I would split it, and it ended up making 4 servings altogether, making it well worth the price.

Yep, definitely not a vegetarian.

So, the preparation, as you can imagine, was not difficult at all. It was just a matter of cutting up the beef into strips… (Read: I do not have the proper tools to make strips, so by “strips,” I mean “small chunks”)

A better knife could make strips, but alas Wǒ shì zhìyuàn zhě (I am a volunteer)

Then I stir-fried the chopped broccoli in some peanut oil until it was soft…

Browning the broccoli

Putting the broccoli aside, I fried the beef for a few minutes, added the sauce, and brought it to a boil…

I miss eating medium-cooked beef, but that’s a death-trap in China 😦

Finally, I added the broccoli for the last ten minutes or so, stirring occasionally, until the beef was well-done.

Soaking up the tasty sauce

For lunch, it was fine without rice, but I would definitely throw it over some nice brown rice for dinner.

The Recipe! (4 Servings)

What you need:

1/2 pound beef, cubed or stripped

1 head of broccoli, chopped

Peanut oil

For the Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons of white sugar

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 cup water

1 tablespoon corn flour

1 pinch of salt

What to do:

Fry the broccoli in oil until soft; set aside

Fry the beef for 1-2 minutes; add the sauce

When the sauce boils, add the broccoli and fry until beef is well-done